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Thursday, April 7, 2011

Ran across this article written Feb 24th for CNN/Money about the impending government shutdown.. part of it went like this...

"What happens to Social Security if the government shuts down? "People don't get their Social Security checks." That was President Obama at a press conference last week. And this is Harry Reid, the top Democrat in the Senate, in a statement on Tuesday: "A shutdown could ... mean no Social Security checks for seniors." The Democrats are saber rattling, hoping to portray Republicans as irresponsible. And the claim has been repeated by other top Democrats.

Here's the rub: It doesn't appear to be true."

~ Did you get that?

If there's a govt. shutdown, Social Security checks will NOT be affected....

Yet the President and Senate Speaker said it would, while knowing it wouldn't..

"During the last major shutdown, which lasted about a month starting in late 1995, the Social Security Administration mailed checks throughout the crisis, and a close reading of established law makes clear the agency has the legal authority to do so again..."

~ That's good to know- wonder why Obama and Reid didn't know it?

"At the time, Clinton's lawyers pointed out that Social Security checks could be mailed during a shutdown, because the program doesn't need Congress to authorize funds for it each year. Instead, Social Security benefits are paid from the program's trust fund."

~ The shutdown refers to discretionary spending, and Social Security is mandatory spending. It doesn't need an appropriations bill to go forward. And because Social Security benefits -- which go to roughly 60 million Americans -- are paid out of the trust fund, the agency has the implied legal authority to keep paying staffers who administer them.